Al-Abbassi Mosque to be opened after two years of restoration in Port Said

After two years of consecutive restoration, Port Said’s most famous mosque, Al-Abbassi is to be opened again on Friday welcoming people to enjoy the Islamic architecture, and its famous tall minaret and dome.

The mosque has been suffering from deteriorations due to environmental pollution. A high increase of humidity, as the city overviews the Suez Cana, affected the building, as well as the main problem of the water leakage coming from the ablution area affected the structure of the building leaving it in a bad condition that required immediate interference.

The mosque is to be reopened by the minister of Antiquities Khaled El-Enany and Minister of Endowments Mokhtar Gomaa.

The mosque was built in 1904 based on orders of Khedive Abbas Helmy II.

Mustafa Waziri, secretary-general of the Supreme Council of Antiquities, told state owned media outlet, Ahram Online, that the restoration work had been carried out according to the latest scientific methods.

“Every effort was made to ensure that all the original architectural features were retained,” he said, according to Ahram Online.

The restoration of the mosque helped to ensure that important individual monuments were preserved for future generations and neighbourhoods were revivified and upgraded, he added.

The mosque is the second oldest mosque in Port Said. Its historical importance lies in its political role, as it was the city’s popular resistance gathering point in Tripartite Aggression against Egypt in 1956. it was also used as a public shelter for people during the 1967 Egyptian-Israel war. During that, the neighbourhood of Al-Abbassi mosque was severely damaged and almost destroyed.

“The mosque lost some of its authentic elements during development work carried out before its listing in 2006,” Gharib Sonbol, head of the Central Administration for Restoration told Ahram Online.

He added that “according to original drawings and photographs, the mosque’s original wooden painted ceiling was removed and replaced by a concrete one. The original lamps were replaced by modern ones.”